Category: Digitally Mediated Interaction
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An Incomplete Guide to Getting Started on Mastodon
Last week I wrote an article about misconceptions around Mastodon and the Fediverse. I got a lot of great feedback from that article, but I also got one question a lot: what is Mastodon, exactly? I didn’t want to address this in that article, as it’s worthy of a full post of its own. I…
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Misconceptions About Mastodon and the Fediverse
I’ve been re-reading some articles about Mastodon from early 2017, right around the time that it started to get some mainstream notice. I signed up for an account on mastodon.social around that time and launched tech.lgbt that same month, and relaunched it less than two months later in June 2017. I’ve been a supporter of…
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Decentralization of Language on the Web
I’m currently reading Gretchen McCulloch’s new book, ‘Because Internet’, which serves as an overview of linguistic study of the evolution of written (and sometimes spoken) communication brought about by the mass adoption of the internet. Both McCulloch and I implement one of the changes noted earlier on: the word internet has lost its capitalization over…
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Obligatory Why I Deleted Facebook Post
Earlier I read this article on Jonathan Pizarro’s blog: Radio Free Mister Pizarro. In it he describes why he left Facebook recently. Some of his story mirrors my own, in how networks like these I deleted my account about six weeks ago, but like Jonathan, my discontent and disinterest in the platform began much earlier.…
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No, “Your Content Here” Did Not Break the Internet
I feel like it’s time for a bit of a rant. There’s a new phrase that I’ve begun noticing more frequently over the past year: that “____ Broke the Internet”. Fill in the blanks with whatever thing you deem important enough to command the intention of millions of people, and it is quite literally smashing…
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Using Film to Understand our Digital Lives
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of enjoying afternoon tea time at Infusion Tea (it’s tasty, whether it sounds snooty or not :D), followed by a screening of ‘Citizenfour’, Laura Poitras’ documentary on her interactions with Edward Snowden and the NSA file leak that he has become famous for. Last weekend I watched…
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Joaquin Phoenix and the World of ‘Her’
If you’ve not seen the movie ‘Her’ yet, you may just know it as that movie where the guy falls in love with his computer. That’s a pretty simplistic overview of the plot, which revolves more around a vision of the near future as it’s likely coming, and what it means to be human. Joaquin…
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Digitally Mediated Interaction: Internet Dating
I met both my current boyfriend and my ex through online dating. This used to be fairly taboo to admit to, but it seems that the standards have shifted to apps like Tinder being cultural phenomena unto themselves. It seems that more people have tried internet mediated dating than not, making it a more “acceptable”…
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Digitally Mediated Interaction: Hyperpersonal Model
Utilizing digitally mediated interaction has a few distinct advantages over “real world”, face to face communication. One of the bigger advantages, the subject of the hyperpersonal model, is the ability to manage one’s presentation to another. The ability exists to control representation of oneself and dictate the terms on which communication occurs. Basically, you can…
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Gays, Geeks and Gamers: Digital Niches
All three of the above labels I would apply to myself in some fashion or another. One of the great things that the internet has brought has been the ability to gather disparate communities together under larger banners, or bring people together who might have otherwise never been able to find each other, assuming that…
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Digitally Mediated Interaction: Flaming and the Flamers
It appears to be easier to devalue others when communicating online. The lack of physical presence and perhaps emotional cues causes a lack of recognition of the humanity of others. Dissociative anonymity, asynchronicity, perceived lack of repercussions and a host of other factors can cause disinhibition, where an otherwise civil individual can change their tone…
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Digitally Mediated Interaction: Emotional Cues
Another situation that is near to me is the inability to determine emotional state via written communication. While I mentioned before that people have found a few ways to handle the obstacle of the lack of body language, or even use it to their advantage, just as often as a message is interpreted correctly, it…